.: bistan.net :.

My kids attended the party of the year tonight, better known as Chelsea’s birthday.  Her parents put more time and energy into planning and executing her birthday party that I put into my entire life’s education.  Here are a couple of pictures.

The employees who work at the local post office look as if they have stepped right out of a 1970s JCPenney catalog. Their hairstyles and clothing are reminiscent of a time gone by. Then again, folks say “what goes around comes around”, so maybe they are just early adopters on a future trend. Let’s hope not.

The democrats should have never put Michelle Obama after Ted Kennedy. I personally don’t care for Kennedy, but I wouldn’t want to follow him as a speaker – especially when he is giving a speech that could be his last.

I miss the Olympics. Maybe I can talk wife into going to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I like the winter games better anyway and if they are coming to our continent we might as well go, right?

It has rained everyday for about a week now and it will continue into the foreseeable future (according to the 10 day radar). My grass is up to my knees but it’s too wet to cut. When it finally dries up, it’s not going to be much fun.

I booked our hotel for the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend in early January 2009. Now it just needs to cool off (and stop raining) so I can continue training.

Everything seems to be broken here at work, from the air-conditioning to email to the internet. I guess I should go put out some more “fires”.

Over the past week, I’ve begun the daunting task of removing my junk from my parent’s house.  The amount of junk that I can’t seem to let go of is unimaginable.  I am a pack rat.

I think originally it started with my mother preferring to save things for her grandchildren.  The problem with that is she is gone and my kids have way too many toys already.  There is not enough room in my 1300 square foot house for their junk and mine.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to let go of stuff.  None of it is valuable to anyone else.  I have (lots of) toys from my childhood, memorable things from high school, and paraphernalia from jobs I had in high school and college.  I guess I have a problem throwing out things that have memories attached to them.  I cherish the junk as if I had the happiest childhood and I want to relive it.  Newsflash: I didn’t and I don’t.

One day, I’m going to post my Greatest Hits to this blog.  I’m sure about 3 and 1 other will happen in less than five months, but I can’t figure out what the fifth one is.  We will see.

Nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be.

Today was Tristan’s first day of Pre-K and Mackenzie’s first day of 2K.  I snapped the pictures below when we dropped them off.  I can’t begin to express how happy I am to have them out of the redneck daycare center that has been part of our life for the past 4 1/2 years.

The title and photos say it all . . .

1. Michael Phelps = AWESOME!  Even the president thinks so.

2. Opening Ceremonies were nice, but did all of that firework smoke really help the Beijing smog situation?

3. My thoughts and prayers go out to the men’s volleyball team for their loss.  If you haven’t heard, a member of the coach’s family was murdered in China by some coward who later committed suicide.

Ran with my boss through Centerville, Georgia.  Our time: 1:07:59.

I’m sure there are quite a few people who will be proud of me for this post.  I bought a mac.  I’m actually typing this post on it now.

I got a great deal!  I bought it through the Apple Education Store, which saved me a hundred bucks, during Georgia’s tax-free weekend, which saved me another $75.  On top of that, Apple has a special where you get a free 8GB Ipod Touch (after rebate) and Discover Card gives 5% cash back when clicking through to the Apple Store from shopdiscover.com.

As an IT professional with roots firmly grounded in Microsoft products, this is definitely a step out of my comfort zone.  My first computer was an Apple IIc and I spend hours on it, but like the rest of the world, I grew up and went with Windows.

My first impression is that the mac is a great toy!  I don’t see it ever having a prominent place in the business environment, but for home use it is wonderful.  The photo, audio, and video applications which ship with the OS are second to none.  Microsoft has a long way to go if they are going to compete in those arenas.

I can’t imagine a corporate environment deploying macs as their primary client workstation.  Imagine the issues:

• Costs.  Macs cost more.  And if you run Windows on it, the costs just rise.
• Training.  For people with no computer skills, the mac is a great way to learn, but for people with solid Windows skills like myself, it is tough to learn.
• Productivity.  Imagine giving a secretary a machine with such cools apps.  They wouldn’t need to surf the net for entertainment.

My favorite event, which only happens every other year begins tomorrow — the Olympics.  While the Winter Games are my favorite, I also love the Summer Games.  I’m not too impressed with the host city (or country for that matter), but they should be good games anyway.

I am predicting, however, that something bad will happen at these games.  First Munich, then Atlanta, and now Beijing.  I hope I have to eat those words in a few days.  I don’t want anything to happen, but too many people hate the Chinese.

Good luck to Team USA in all of the events.  But I also cheer for those countries that struggle to send a handful of athletes to the Games, who then return as national heroes regardless of whether or not they place in their events.

NBC is airing thousands of hours over the next few weeks on their channels.  Be sure to catch as much as you can!